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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28538877">Sleep Demon</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsuwundere/pseuds/tsuwundere'>tsuwundere</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Light Angst, M/M, Nightmares, One Shot, Sharing a Bed, because they're married - Freeform, did i mention they're married, kaede and kaito are mentioned for like 50 words between them, they're husbands, they're married</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 22:34:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,608</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28538877</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsuwundere/pseuds/tsuwundere</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Shuichi's been having nightmares.</p><p>He's been dealing with them by himself for the most part, but one is so frightening, so disturbing that he can't hide his terror when he shoots up in bed, rousing his husband in the process.</p><p>Kokichi knows (almost) all the right things to say.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Oma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>173</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Sleep Demon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>content warning for suicide within shuichi's nightmare</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was that nightmare again.</p><p> </p><p>Shuichi had been having them for quite some time now. He’d fall asleep in his husband’s embrace every night just to see said husband get ripped away from him in an increasingly horrifying fashion every few nights – illnesses, war, the jaws of an animal, murderers, machinery, poverty, incinerators, bodies of water, road accidents, hunger, natural disasters; there were so many that Shuichi doubted he could even list them all anymore.</p><p> </p><p>No matter how many he had and how many he’d woken up from just to find the subject of all that agony and torment curled up beside him, warm, alive, perfectly fine and perfectly safe – he could never get used to it. It always felt far too real.</p><p> </p><p>Though, that didn’t mean Shuichi couldn’t <em>cope</em>. Sure, he oftentimes woke up with a pounding heart and a terrible mood, but that was usually it. The sight of Kokichi’s peaceful sleeping beside him usually soothed him quickly, and telling him about it in the morning and having him turn it into something lighthearted in a way that only he could pretty much extinguished any and all remaining anguish in him by 9 o’clock in the morning.</p><p> </p><p>At this point in his life, Shuichi figured dealing with nightmares was just something he could do on his own, regardless of how frequent they got.</p><p> </p><p><em>That</em> night was just different though.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“I-It’s fine. Stay with me, you’ll be okay,” Shuichi stammered, trying to comfort his sobbing husband as he shifted the remains of their collapsed house off of his back, under which he laid barely conscious with several crushed body parts.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“Shuichi, it hurts!” He cried when moving one piece of debris disturbed the balance of another piece, causing it to fall onto rubble that was already crushing Kokichi’s arm.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“I know, I’m sorry, I jus—!”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>There was another pained cry when a part of the building that had still been standing above them finally gave way. Shuichi reflexively ducked and moved away, but Kokichi was limited for choice when it came to dodging and had no option but to take the extra weight on his frail body.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“Kokichi?” Shuichi called out into the dust clouds generated by the fallen building, his voice all thin, soft and wispy from the sob he’d suppressed. “Are you still conscious? Please keep talking to me,”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“You know, Shuichi,” The dust departed slowly, revealing Kokichi looking Shuichi dead in the eyes, final stray tears drying half-way down his face. “This has all really opened my eyes.”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“What do you mean?” He asked, desperately chipping away at the smaller pieces of debris again, now with a lot more work to do to free his gravely injured husband than just a moment ago.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“I mean, you’re a completely useless husband. Right now, three of my ribs are broken, my right leg’s been shattered, my left shoulder’s been dislocated and the same arm has been snapped in two, but you’re absolutely fine. Isn’t that strange? Didn’t you promise to protect me when we got married?”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“I-I’m trying— I tried,” Shuichi felt tears prickling at his eyes, “I’m sorry.”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>Kokichi guffawed. “Oh, there it is. That’s the magic word, right there. Suddenly, all of my broken bones are fixed now. Thanks, Shumai. You’re real helpful.”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>Shuichi swallowed thickly when he failed to shift a particularly large piece of what had been their upper floor off of Kokichi. “I can’t… I can’t move this. I’m s-sorry, I’m so sorry,”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“It’s okay, Shuichi. I’m at peace with how useless you turned out to be. It’s not <strong>all</strong> your fault, you know? There was failure on my end, too. I didn’t notice it any sooner, and went and got married to you all in a rush.”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“I’ll… I’ll stay here. Give me your hand, I’ll stay here with you until help gets here.”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>Kokichi made no attempt to move his free hand towards Shuichi’s own extended hand, so Shuichi strained against the debris separating them to just barely graze his fingers, while remaining careful not to disturb it any further and inadvertently hurt him any more. He held himself in that painful position.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>Kokichi blinked. “Do you think I’m going to survive?”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“D-Definitely. Come on, Kokichi, you have to survive…” Shuichi slipped from the position he was trying to hold, making an excrutiating landing into shattered glass. He didn’t look to assess the damage.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“You’re naïve as well as useless. That’s like, the worst combination, you know? Stupid people who don’t realise they’re stupid. I’m going to die here, Shuichi, and it’ll be your fault.”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“Kokichi, please stop,” Shuichi began to plead. “You’re being so cruel…”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“Yeah.” Kokichi said sharply. “I’m cruel, Shuichi, and you’re useless. Useless, useless, useless. Completely useless.”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>Shuichi brought his knees to his chest and held them there. “You don’t mean any of that. You’re lying, right? Come on… Say that stupid thing that you always say. That it’s a lie, and you’re just kidding – or something, I don’t know…”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“It’d be nice if that were the case, wouldn’t it?” Kokichi cooed mockingly. “Sadly, this is all true. This is how I really feel about you. This is how <strong>everyone</strong> feels about you.”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“W-Well, what do you want me to do? How can I be… not useless? Just tell me, I’ll do it.” Shuichi declared that last part with far too much promise. “Anything… to make you stop.”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“Kill yourself.” Kokichi said without hesitation. He glanced to the road in front of them and Shuichi followed his gaze – what was usually a silent road full of only parked cars considering they lived in a cul-de-sac was now a highway full of speeding trucks.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>When had that happened?? Shuichi gulped.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“What’s the matter? You can’t do it can you?”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“I can,” Shuichi said instinctively. “I can… I’m just scared.”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“I would hold your pathetic little hand through even this, the simplest of tasks, if I could, but you know,” Kokichi waved the one hand he could still move, gesturing to the rubble he was being crushed under.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>Shuichi stood up and stepped forward, stopping with the very tips of his toes on the bright yellow warning lines.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“Can’t even commit to sitting by my side for a few minutes like you said you would. Really, what are you good for?” Came one final taunt from whoever the hell was underneath all that debris.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“I know,” Shuichi found himself answering. “I’m so useless.”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p><em>He stepped forward one more time,</em> and woke up screaming.</p><p> </p><p>“Jeez, what the hell?” Kokichi slurred, voice all raspy with sleep.</p><p> </p><p>Shuichi had shot up fast enough to make himself dizzy. His mind was still going at a million miles per hour, his heart pounding against his ribcage with enough force to convince him they were going to collapse onto his lungs, all while Kokichi clumsily turned on the light on his smartphone from the windowsill on his side of the bed.</p><p> </p><p>“Shumai, what’s the matter? Did you have a bad dream?” He asked softly, one hand on Shuichi’s shoulder and the other rubbing sleep from his visibly heavy eyelids.</p><p> </p><p>Breathing hard, Shuichi gulped. When he only swallowed air, he belatedly registered how dry his mouth had gotten.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes,” Shuichi answered, his eyes already welling up with tears and his voice already breaking. “I’m sorry, I woke you up…”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s hardly your fault,” Kokichi said, tiredly resting his forehead against Shuichi’s shoulder. “Move. I’ll make you some hot chocolate.”</p><p> </p><p>Kokichi pulled their shared comforter off of himself and began to shift over Shuichi’s limbs, but Shuichi just sat him back down with a clutch of his pyjama top.</p><p> </p><p>“Sorry… Can you stay with me for a bit first?” Shuichi mumbled and Kokichi complied, lying back down and pulling at Shuichi’s sleeve in suggestion to do the same.</p><p> </p><p>Kokichi snuggled close, holding Shuichi to his chest as he began to comb his fingers through the latter’s bluish-black hair. Shuichi felt the tension in him ebbing away.</p><p> </p><p>“Hey, Kokichi,” Shuichi called out after some silence.</p><p> </p><p>“Hmm?”</p><p> </p><p>“Am I… Am I useless?”</p><p> </p><p>There was a pause, in which the movement of Kokichi’s hand in his hair became hesitant and confused. “Uh… yeah, kinda. Why?”</p><p> </p><p>Shuichi’s heart dropped. “No, I just… Just had a dream where you kept calling me useless, and I wondered if you really felt that way.” He explained, dejectedly.</p><p> </p><p>“…Oh. You should’ve started with that.” Kokichi moved to face Shuichi. “I mean, yeah, you’re useless, but everyone is. We’re all just aimlessly stumbling about. I don’t love you because you’re useful to me. I love you because you’re kind, and caring,” he stopped to press a kiss to Shuichi’s forehead, “and talented, and pretty – but not useful. Define <em>useful</em> anyway – if you were to get sick or hurt and couldn’t work or earn money or take me out or anything anymore, I’m not going to stop loving you. Get it?”</p><p> </p><p>“Kind of,” Shuichi sighed, feeling the cracks in his heart fill.</p><p> </p><p>Kokichi turned onto his back, holding the arm he’d been lying on to face Shuichi. <em>He must have pins and needles</em>, Shuichi figured.</p><p> </p><p>“If we ever renew our vows, that sounds like a solid addition.” Kokichi continued. “I promise to love you in both sickness and in health, in usefulness and in futility,”</p><p> </p><p>The pair of them laughed softly.</p><p> </p><p>“What else did the sleep demon tell you?” Kokichi asked, looking towards Shuichi again with that warm expression of his.</p><p> </p><p>“Um… It, uh, told me to kill myself as well.” Shuichi brought his duvet to his chin.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, man. Those are some dreams, huh?” Kokichi said, looking towards the ceiling again. “You mean the world to me, Shuichi. If anything happened to you, my fragile little heart will shatter into a million tiny pieces – all of them small enough to be considered nothing, just so they can follow you to the realm of nothingness. And I can’t have that, so I need you to take good care of yourself. Okay?”</p><p> </p><p>Shuichi nodded. “Mhm.”</p><p> </p><p>“Good.”</p><p> </p><p>There was some more silence before Kokichi spoke up again, with the pair of them just laying there – Kokichi playing with Shuichi’s hair and Shuichi playing with the buttons on Kokichi’s pyjama shirt.</p><p> </p><p>“Y’know, Shuichi, this sleep demon of yours is impressive. Wanna know why?” Kokichi peeled his upper body from Shuichi in order to face him, his large purple eyes serious and his arms dropping from around Shuichi’s head and shoulders down to his middle.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s because there’s an even more frightening monster right beside you, and it’s not even fazed – it’s still messing with you as if the other monster isn’t even there.”</p><p> </p><p>“Wh-What monster?” Shuichi asked, sparing a glance over his shoulder in case Kokichi had set anything up there in the last thirty seconds or something.</p><p> </p><p>“Me!” Kokichi’s tiny, cold fingers made their way up beyond the bottom hem of Shuichi’s shirt, up to his tummy and began tickling.</p><p> </p><p>Shuichi practically squawked – Kokichi wasn’t sure how to describe it, but it was some noise akin to a squeal he had heard only once before, when Shuichi had bought Kaede tickets to see her favourite idols on her birthday way back when they were in high school.</p><p> </p><p>There was some giggling, yelping and a series of pleads for him to stop before he complied after the seventh or eighth frantic objection.</p><p> </p><p>“See, the tickle monster is far more terrifying right?” Kokichi asked a blushing Shuichi who now had his own arms protectively wrapped around his middle. The duvet had slipped during the struggle, so Kokichi straightened it back up over Shuichi’s shoulders. “Just fear me more and you’ll become immune to the sleep demon’s influences. That’s totally how it works. They’ve got research on it in Oxford and Harvard. I swear – I’ve read it all myself.”</p><p> </p><p>“You’re the worst,” Shuichi whined, trying to regain the warmth he lost by kicking his duvet off in the struggle by snuggling closer to Kokichi again. That’s when he noticed a certain sparkle in the gap in the curtains beside them.</p><p> </p><p>“Hey, is that a shooting star or an airplane? It’s moving pretty fast,” Shuichi pointed at a particularly prominent sparkle in the sky – one that was hurting his neck to keep an eye on from that angle behind the window of their two-storey house.</p><p> </p><p>“That’s totally an airplane.” Kokichi said with a yawn. “I’m making a wish anyway. I want Shumai’s nightmares to go away. And a million dollars.”</p><p> </p><p>“I don’t think they come true if you say them aloud,” Shuichi said flatly. “And I don’t think you can make two wishes on one star.”</p><p> </p><p>Kokichi rolled his eyes. “Such a nitpick. I’m literally wishing on a fucking airplane.” He let out an exaggerated groan. “Alright, it’s only fair that a handsome prince like Shuichi can make demands of me. We’ll just go with the first one. May Shuichi sleep well every night from now so I can be spared of dumbass comments like <em>oh, Kokichi, you can’t make two wishes on one star</em> and <em>waaah, Kokichi, they won’t come true if you say them aloud</em>. Amen.”</p><p> </p><p>Shuichi laughed. “You can’t pray to a shooting star! Or an airplane!”</p><p> </p><p>“Shhh. The pilot of that airplane is God now that he’s been entrusted with my prayer. I don’t make the rules.”</p><p> </p><p>There was a gentle silence before Shuichi spoke again.</p><p> </p><p>“Aren’t you going to ask me what I wished for?”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh. What did you wish for?”</p><p> </p><p>“Not telling.”</p><p> </p><p>“You’re as annoying as I am.”</p><p> </p><p>“Kokichi, I’m sleepy now,” Shuichi finally said with a yawn. It must’ve been a solid half an hour or so since he’d woken up all startled and upset.</p><p> </p><p>Kokichi hummed in response. “Me too. Let’s go back to sleep.” He turned back onto his side, threw an arm around Shuichi and closed his eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m protecting you from the sleep demon. Go to sleep while I’m still on duty,” Kokichi said softly into Shuichi’s hair. “If I see it, I’ll punch it in the face. Just like I got Kaito that one time in high school. Evil leader’s oath.”</p><p> </p><p>Shuichi let out a gentle laugh at the stupid memory Kokichi was referring to – a theatre performance they’d been made to do, where Kokichi was casted as an evil dictator and Kaito was the hero, except Kokichi had accidentally <em>actually</em> hit Kaito during the climactic hero-villain fight scene and the latter had just fallen back and began crying.</p><p> </p><p>“Come on, how am I supposed to sleep now that you’ve reminded me of that atrocity?” It had been an accident, but the event had generated so much drama at the time with Kaito wholeheartedly believing that Kokichi had done it deliberately, leading to him trying to convince Shuichi to break up with him.</p><p> </p><p>Thank God the situation settled eventually and all the friendships involved were repaired. The next time Shuichi saw Kaito cry was when he asked him to be his best man at his wedding.</p><p> </p><p>Kokichi laughed soundlessly. “I don’t know – sheer willpower? Just go to sleep, baby.”</p><p> </p><p>It took about ten to fifteen minutes, but drowsiness was beginning to weigh on Shuichi’s eyelids again.</p><p> </p><p>“Kokichi?” Shuichi tested. No answer. It’s so typical of Kokichi to sleep on the job.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, I can’t keep it to myself so I’ll tell you anyway even though you can’t hear me.” He said softly, yawning.</p><p> </p><p>“I didn’t make a wish. You’ve already decided to be with me for the rest of our lives so, I don’t know… Couldn’t think of anything else to wish for.”</p><p> </p><p>With that off his chest, Shuichi let the drowsiness eating away at his consciousness take over.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>WWWWWWWWWWW I SAID I'M A FLUFF MACHINE NOW DIDN'T I</p><p>MY NEW YEARS' RESOLUTION WAS TO INDULGE TO THE FULLEST. HERE I AM, AO3</p><p>i've been having a few unpleasant dreams lately so i wrote this to help cope actually. they're not super bad like this, i just wake up from em feeling kinda shitty. it's almost 2am and i haven't beta read this and it was all done in one sitting, so i'll fix any typos or anything in the morning. anyway i love saiou they're so cute thanks for reading leave kudos and a comment. mwah</p></blockquote></div></div>
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